The Hateful Eight (2015) – Teaser

Quentin Tarantino’s mind seems still set in America’s past, as his last few films – Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained – have all been period pieces revolving around revisionist takes on historical milestones (WWII and American Slavery, for those counting).

Tarantino’s new film Hateful Eightseems to invoke the hard-boiled crime drama ensemble flicks of his early work (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction), mashed up with his more ambitious cinephile throwback period pieces. The first teaser trailer doesn’t tell as much: Just who the characters in the ensemble are, and the clear stylistic signature that this is a Tarantino movie.

Here’s the run down of the characters, as detailed in the trailer:

Samuel L. Jackson – Marquis Warren aka “The Bounty Hunter”

Kurt Russell – John Ruth aka “The Hangman”

Jennifer Jason Leigh – Daisy Domergue aka “The Prisoner”

Walton Goggins – Chris Mannix aka “The Sheriff”

Demian Bichir – Bob aka “The Mexican”

Tim Roth – Oswaldo Mobray aka “The Little Man”

Michael Madsen – Joe Cage aka “The Cow Puncher”

Bruce Dern – General Sandy Smithers aka “The Confederate”

In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…